Social class in in theory

By Husayn Al-Kurdi, 15 Nov 1999. Re. the "ABC" theorists,
"Anything But Class". They'll tell you that culture is
important, group identity politics is important, personal psychology
is important-- anything but class. They announce that Marxism and
class issues are dead at the very time when class power is augmenting
itself, intensifying and showing a greater brutality than ever.

By Chris Burford, 4 Jan 2001. Burford finds the focus on emergent
properties suggestive but perhaps problematical, particularly
as Brown applies it to the labor theory of value and suggests a
possible relation with Marxism.

By Haines Brown, 6 January 2001. He elaborates upon emergence
and its role in contradictory processes and in a Marxist notion
of surplus value to define a link between thermodynamics and
Marxism. Some speculation on the history of the labor theory
of value.

By Chris Burford, 7 Jan 2001. Objects that Brown's discussion of
the labor theory of value is too abstract, and the historical
specifics must be kept in mind. While the notion of class as
process is appealing, Brown's articulation of it is adventurous.

By Haines Brown, 8 Jan 2001. Brown discusses the notion of emergent
properties in historical perspective and suggests that the modern
novelty consists in a naturalistic rather than supernaturalistic
explanation of emergence. He outlines the steps leading from
the concept of an emergent process to a definition of contradiction,
and then a pair of contradictions that characterize the history
of class society.